Kinston, NC (June 27, 2009) – For the second time this year, Casey Kelly was perfect through six innings. In similar fashion to his last bid for perfection, the Red Sox needed extra innings to dispatch their foe. But despite Kinston battling back with one in the eighth and one in the ninth off the Salem bullpen, the Red Sox survived the series finale with a 3-2 victory in 14 innings to sweep the three-game set in Kinston.

Jason Place went 0-7, but also was credited with the game-winning RBI when his chopper to third scored Kris Negron from third with one out in the top of the 14^th. It was an unearned run charged to reliever David Roberts, for Negron had reached on a routine grounder to shortstop when the throw went in and out of Ryan Blair’s glove at first. The second error of the game for Kinston proved decisive as Josh Papelbon closed it out in the last of the 14^th to earn his second save of the season.

In a remarkable display of pitching prowess, Kelly retired the first 19 batters he faced over six and a third innings, pitching into the seventh inning for the first time in his professional career. The perfect game ended when Yamaico Navarro dropped a flare off the bat off Cord Phelps and was charged with an error in the bottom of the seventh. The next batter, Lonnie Chisenhall, singled to right to break up the no-hitter as well. Even though he only had a 2-0 lead, Kelly remained calm and retired Ole Sheldon and Roman Pena to escape the jam and complete seven scoreless innings.

Kinston, shut out through the first 25 innings of the series, finally scored in the last of the eighth when Adam Davis doubled home Blair to make it 2-1 off Robert Coello. The next two batters both walked and Jason Rice entered a bases loaded, two-out situation with Chisenhall coming up. The Kinston third baseman was 3-3 with three grand slams with the bags packed this year, but Rice induced an inning-ending grounder to third to avert the threat.
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An inning later, however, Rice threw a wild pitch that allowed Lucas Montero, pinch-running for Sheldon, to score from third and tie the game at two. Rice did strike out Blair and Martinez with the winning-run at third base to send it to extras, a pivotal pair of Ks for the Sox.

Salem threatened in every single extra inning, putting runners in scoring position in the 10^th, 11^th, 12^th, and 13^th, before finally capitalizing on the many opportunities in the 14^th. Jose Capellan earned the win with four sensational innings out of the bullpen on a night when Derrick Loop was unavailable with the flu. Papelbon, pitching on back-to-back days for the second time this season, pitched around a two-out single in the bottom of the 14^th to earn the save.

Che-Hsuan Lin went 4-5 for Salem, while Tim Federowicz, Anthony Rizzo, and Luis Exposito each tallied multiple hits in the narrow victory. Salem outhit Kinston 13-5, but the Red Sox went 2-16 with runners in scoring position and stranded 14 runners on base.

The game took four hours and 18 minutes to complete, and inning-wise, was the longest Carolina League contest so far in 2009.

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